Somali pirates have captured a small Saudi tanker and its crew, the EU naval force in the Gulf of Aden says. The tanker, travelling from Japan to Jeddah, was empty when pirates hijacked the vessel and took its crew captive. The MT Nisir Al Saudi was outside the shipping lanes patrolled by naval warships, it was reported.
Because the most efficient route for it to take to Jeddah was outside the patrol lanes or because the captain felt like doing his own thing?
The captain of the ship is Greek but the nationalities of the rest of the crew are not known.
The latest ship to be captured was taken to the Somali town of Garacad, a known pirate stronghold, said Cmdr John Harbour of the EU Naval Force in the area. |